Xenophobia
by lily22
Summary: How can we stop you from killing us all? By gaining your understanding, of course... [AU]
1. Prologue

Prologue  
  
~~  
  
Television. That medium by which the general population is entertained, occupied and kept safely out of the way. It shocks us, awes us, and, above all, (mis)informed.  
  
I stare at the glass screen, my hand clutched to the remote tightly. So tightly, in fact, that the volume turns up on its own accord, blasting out at somewhere around fifty decibels, more than loud enough to wake up anything within a one mile radius and most definitely enough to wake up anyone in the house... that is, if there were anyone else here. I can't stand it anymore, and with one deft click, the volume is suddenly gone, along with the pretty little pictures that just moments ago moved across the screen like real, live people. Of course, they are real people, somewhere out there in New York City or wherever, filming the news program.  
  
Such a stupid news program.  
  
Another click and the metal cube is back on. Several subsequent clicks and the volume is back down to a manageable level. They're still there, all the stupid little people, blabbering about their stupid little nuclear weapons. Of course, they're not so little when you consider that one is enough to send the world into complete anarchy. At which point those who are dead are the lucky ones.  
  
Are they really so stupid? Do they realize that we have enough weapons to destroy the world a hundred times over? Why the heck do we need to blow up the world a hundred times? Why would we even want to blow up the world even once?  
  
I glare again at the unfeeling bastards on the television screen.  
  
Why do we still want to blow up the world innumerous times? There's somebody else who wants to accomplish the task for us. Does nobody know what kind of sacrifice one of their own is making to save the very planet that they are ready to blow to Hell?  
  
Even as I think that over, I realize that, no, of course they don't know. It's not public information. But at least they should have enough common sense to know that more is in not, even the slightest, most minute way, better. In this case.  
  
The couch's arm squishes under my assault, as I repeatedly cream it. I have very good reason to be mad. The couch's best friend didn't give himself up to save a species that doesn't even care. Couches aren't building weapons against their own planet instead of against the enemy. Why, I wonder, do couches have more common sense than the beings that made them?  
  
Yuugi didn't give up his own life to save couches from an extremely potent alien species...  
  
And even if he did, at least couches would value that gift. They wouldn't continue building weapons of mass destruction to destroy their own planet a hundred times, rendering his sacrifice completely useless.  
  
Stupid aliens. Stupid humans. Stupid life. Stupid everything. Except the couches. They're smart. Smarter than the humans, at any rate. Which isn't saying much. 


	2. Alar

Author's Notes: Yes, that was supposed to be Jou's point of view… Thanks to the reviewers, and of course, Lizzy, for betaing! 

Chapter 1: Alar

The straw was coarse under Yuugi's neck, and he brought his hand up to ease the itch. Opening one bleary one, then the other, he thought he could see faces floating before him. He snapped his eyes shut, then opened them again.

He _could_ see faces, he found. They formed a mob, pushing and shoving at each other, peering for a glimpse of something… or someone? They were all staring at him. Yuugi gulped. Bars. There were bars right in front of him. That was what separated Yuugi from the viewers. 'What is this, a zoo?' He asked himself. 'Wait. This _is_ a zoo, isn't it?'

So the question was, not where he was, but why he was here. Why was he a zoo animal? A memory tickled the back of his mind. Add another question to his list of… two: why didn't he expect to see faces anymore?

Violet eyes widened as a scene came rushing back to him. There was a man, his boss, and there was he, Yuugi. They were sitting at a table. Having a discussion of sorts. He blinked his gaze back up to the spectators. He didn't expect to see _human _faces anymore.

Perhaps these weren't human.__

Yuugi had crinkled his eyebrows in confusion. "You're telling me that there are aliens sitting practically in our back yard?"

_"Well, they're not exactly aliens. Some DNA-bearing bacteria were clustered on the rock that blasted into space 80-some years ago. They remained alive but inactive all that time… and now that they're back, they've started growing again."_

_"…And?"_

_"They landed on earth about 45 years ago. Five years later, the bacteria began growing and evolving… And in 40 years, they've developed humanoid creatures. Don't you understand that? It too them 40 years to evolve to our level… while we've been evolving into all sorts of different creatures, finally achieving humanity after some hundred billion years! If this is what they do in 40 years, they'll have left us behind in no time… We'll lose the race of evolutional superiority, and they'll wipe us all out!"_

_"And I'm supposed to do…?" Yuugi prompted, staring at his boss._

_"I want you to go make contact with them, Yuugi. I know it'll be difficult, but I also know you can do it. Be our ambassador, and earn their trust."_

_"So we can wipe them out when they don't suspect." _

_"No! So we can build a friendship with what is, to our knowledge, the only species besides us to achieve our level of intellect!"_

Yuugi shook his head to rid himself of that conversation. It had taken place more than a week ago. Instead, he began studying the ones staring at him. They looked human enough, but then again, who knew?

'He's awake!'

Yuugi jumped. The voice had resounded in his head. 'What…?'

'Do you think he understands us?' Another voice asked.

'H-hello…?' He tried tentatively with his mind, but if the voices heard, they gave no indication.

'Hey, you! Can you understand us?'

"They seem to communicate mentally," Yuugi whispered, finally remembering the mouthpiece that he was supposed to use to report back to HQ.

'Hello??'

"I can understand you!" He called.

'I don't think he understands,' one said sadly.

'Aw… he looked like he might be sentient.'

'The Winged Ones!' Another whispered in a reverent tone.

'Yes, the Winged Ones!'

'Bring the Winged Ones! They'll know what to do!'

A mental murmur of agreement rang out through Yuugi's head, and a few ran off to fetch the supposed Winged Ones.__

_"Some of these not-aliens have the features of animals. Instead of trial and error, they kept the features that would aid them most…" _

_"What do you mean?"_

_"We evolved. Birds, fishes, bears, starfish, all these are in our ancestry. But they never evolved to primitive animals in the first place. However, some have claws like birds, or fish scales for protection…"_

_"Oh. That's bad, right?"_

_"Bad for us. Good for them."_

_"Why?"_

_"Because we had to evolve into billions of primitive animals to achieve humanity, shedding some useful aspects in the process. They jumped directly to sentient, thinking beings, and they never completely shed their most useful parts."_

_"But that doesn't make them a danger, does it?"_

_"No. But they're still evolving. Their intelligence is growing, Yuugi! They've already invented buildings! Vaguely automobile-shaped things that use much less oil than ours are already patrolling the streets." The boss sounded hysterical. "The only thing we have that they don't have seems to be written language… or spoken language for that matter, though they seem to be communicating somehow. Besides that, they have everything and more! How long do you think we have until they have their own improved weapons of mass destruction?"_

_"And blow themselves up?"_

_"…You're impossible."_

'The Winged Ones! The Winged Ones!' A mental voice cried out, followed by several awed echoes. 

'Talk to it, Winged Ones! Tell us if it is intelligent!'

"I'm not an it, thank you very much," he muttered, though he knew that they wouldn't hear him. Instead, he directed his attention towards the newcomers.

There were four, Yuugi saw. His eyes widened. How strange. Basically human-looking people… only they had wings.

The first gazed at him with wide chocolate eyes, long white hair falling haphazardly to his shoulders. A pair of feathery white wings arched elegantly from his back, which the others made room for. Another stood next to him, with blue eyes, a strong build, and dark brown wings that spanned twice as far as the white ones.

All guys, Yuugi decided, except the next one. She had clear wings, like that of a dragonfly. With a start, Yuugi realized that they all had wings resembling some Earth creature… the first could be a dove, and the second an eagle. 'Intriguing… and the last one?'

Yuugi's mouth dropped open. How many times had he seen that exact same hair, that exact same face, staring back at him from the mirror? Only minor details, a sterner mouth, darker eyes, set them apart. And the wings, of course. Large, leathery bat wings that intruded into Yuugi's idea that one of these four might be human.

'Do you speak, little one?' 

"Yes. But you won't listen." Yuugi muttered.

'Do your mutterings mean something?'

"That's a stupid question. If you can't understand them, how could I tell you?"

'I dunno, Yami. He's responsive, but that could be just coincidence.' Yuugi was pretty sure that the voice belonged the brown-haired, dragonfly-winged girl, though he had no clue how he would know that.

'This is stupid. If the thing can speak, it's obviously through the sounds that it makes, and we can't understand them.' He looked between the dove-winged and the eagle-winged, trying to figure out who had spoken with such contempt.

'Relax, Seto. There's no harm in trying.' That was definitely the dove-winged, meaning that it would probably be in Yuugi's best interest to avoid angering the eagle-winged. Seto, was it?

'Trying what? Trying to decipher some most-likely random sounds? How long do you think that'll take?'

The white-haired cringed away a little.

'Ah, stop it, Kaiba. You always act like the world revolves around you.' That was the butterfly-winged girl.

'Like you don't, Mai?'

'Maybe Ryou's right,' the brown-haired girl spoke again. 'We could try introducing ourselves, and if he can understand, maybe he'll figure something out.'

Throughout the exchange, the non-Winged Ones had kept silent, as if to speak whilst the Winged Ones were speaking was sacrilege. Now, a mental cheer erupted. 'What amazing wisdom! The Winged Ones are sagacious indeed!' Even as the cheers died down, the dove-winged was already opening a section of the bars, presumably the door.


	3. Homesickness

In response to some of the reviews:  
  
AkaVertigo: ACK! That was horrible of me. I had originally written five "winged ones", one of which was Mai. when I edited her out, I forgot to change that part. --;  
  
Kopy_kat14: Oo;; Er, 49% of my email account is empty. if it really can't fit, I'm very scared. Try again, please?  
  
Chibizoo: SQUEE! It's YOU! (Lol) Yup, I've been finished with the contest fic for. half a month, I think? Just trying to edit as much as possible (*shines fic*). Oh, and it's me, Lily. --; Of course you've warped my brain! ^-^  
  
Kaitourei: And this is why we read the author's notes! ^_^ Then again, I wasn't very clear. Well, the prologue was (supposedly) Jou's point of view.  
  
Anyways, thanks to everybody who's reviewed!  
  
This is probably the last quick update. Sorry 'bout that.  
  
~~  
  
Chapter 2: Homesickness  
  
'My name's Ryou,' he smiled briefly, shuffling his dove wings in what might have been an agitated motion.  
  
"Pleased to meet you. I'm Yuugi." Yuugi felt exceedingly stupid, but it wasn't like he had anything better to do. Ryou left, looking hopeful, and motioned the next in, receiving a glare for his effort.  
  
Instead, the stepped in. 'That's Seto.' She tilted her head towards the eagle-winged, the one who'd refused to enter the cage. 'Ignore him, and all will be well. I'm Anzu.'  
  
"Nice to meet you."  
  
The last "Winged One" stepped in, and introduced himself as Yami. About to leave, he paused, and muttered, 'little one, you look just like me.'  
  
"Yup. Our eyes are different, though." Yuugi motioned to Yami's ruby eyes, then back to his own.  
  
'Well, he seems responsive. I think he's pointing out the difference in our eye color. We could try an emotion test.' Yami shrugged back at the others.  
  
'Why not?' Mai handed Yami a strange cylindrical thing that reminded Yuugi of a syringe, or a needle, for injection, and...  
  
Yami smiled as he exited the cage, closing the door behind him. 'He's waking again.'  
  
Clang.  
  
"I'm... I'm locked up..." Yuugi whispered. It had never occurred to him before, but now that he noticed, he wished that he hadn't. "I can't escape, even if I wanted to..." His breathing quickened, and sweat glistened on his forehead. "Depending on what I do, depending on what they think... I'm completely at their mercy... I don't know... Who knows what they'll do to me? Caged... trapped..."  
  
"Yuugi! Shh... calm down..." His earpiece spoke.  
  
He blinked once, twice, then, "calm? Calm. Calm?? I'm locked up! Somebody help, please, get me out of here!" He was sobbing, sobbing, his face buried in his hands. "Please..."  
  
"You were fine before, Yuugi, what happened?" "I... don't know... but I'm so scared... please..."  
  
"Yuugi!" He jerked his head out of his hands, stray teardrops flying.  
  
"...Jou?"  
  
"Yuugi, you hafta calm down! You're already this far, don't spoil it."  
  
"...Sorry, Jou... I don't know what the problem is... I'm just..." He took in a ragged gasp of air, and released it.  
  
"I have to go, Yuugi, just calm down. Everything'll be fine, you'll see."  
  
"Jou? No, don't leave me..." His eyes darted around frantically.  
  
"Yuugi?" A different voice. Honda. Not Jou.  
  
"Bring Jou back!"  
  
"We've already violated rules just by letting Jou up to the lab."  
  
"Please, Honda! Please!!" Voice cracking and nearing desperation, Yuugi grasped around for something solid to hang on to, but finding nothing, clenched his hands into fists, digging his nails into his palm.  
  
"I can't, Yuugi. I'm sorry."  
  
"But Honda..."  
  
"Yuugi, give me your observations."  
  
"Obser...? Oh. Umm... they look like us, this one person, well, not person, but this one, one, this one, named Yami, he looks awfully like me, this guy, Ryou, he looks familiar, not sure, they're all watching me, as if observing an animal in a zoo. Perhaps they've caught other animals. They seemed to have a hierarchy," Yuugi whispered quietly, trusting in the sensitivity of the mouthpiece to pick up his voice. "Or maybe it's religion. They worship these 'Winged Ones', who're basically the same as they are, only with wings. They've also mastered the use of iron. That's what the bars are made up. The floor is covered with, maybe is, straw. They also have clothes, made up some sort of plant fiber, though I'm not close enough to see. Not many have animalistic adaptations, actually. I see one with fox-like ears, and another with a beak. I think I also see the tip of a horn, more like elephant tusks, but my view is partially obstructed..." Yuugi's report gradually got more formal and less emotional. Finally, he let out a long breath, shuddering slightly. "I feel... calmer. I have no further observations."  
  
"Good, thanks Yuugi, we've taken note of this, and we'll inform you if we come up with any further questions."  
  
"And Jou?" The hope in his voice was obvious.  
  
"Sorry."  
  
Yuugi chewed quietly on his lower lip. Dimly, he was aware of conversation around him.  
  
'Did you see that? He does have emotion! He does!'  
  
'So what? Many advanced animals also have emotion.'  
  
'But his were so strong, surely he could communicate, if only he knew how...'  
  
'Yeah, keep dreaming.'  
  
'Is the emotion test wearing off?'  
  
'Yes. We could try communicating again?'  
  
Seto snorted.  
  
'Excuse me...' Yuugi tried tentatively, thinking the words over and over in his mind. 'Hello?'  
  
'Hello,' Anzu called, and Yuugi jumped in surprise. But Anzu went on, 'maybe you can understand us, maybe you can't. Could you try to communicate?'  
  
'I am trying! I am trying! I am trying!' Yuugi thought.  
  
'Maybe he doesn't know how,' Ryou suggested.  
  
'Right. Uhh... How do we teach him how to talk?'  
  
'We could... give him another injection?'  
  
'He completely panicked from the first! We can't do that to him again.'  
  
'Why is it a 'him' all of a sudden?'  
  
'Excuse me!' Yuugi thought again. But he couldn't figure out how to make them hear what he was thinking.  
  
'He is a 'him'! Can't you tell?'  
  
Seto glowered, crossing his arms. 'As far as I'm concerned, he's an 'it'. It is a primitive creature, and therefore does not deserve to be acknowledged as a sentient being. I think it was a waste of time capturing it. That entire species is no different from any other.'  
  
'How dare you?' Yuugi screamed mentally. 'Can't you tell that I'm trying to communicate with you? Maybe if you actually listened instead of dismissing the whole human race as nothing, you might hear me!' Though he knew he was being unfair, it still felt good to scream like that, to pour out all his frustration at this failed attempt at communication.  
  
'Seto, be nice!'  
  
'Yeah, Seto, don't dismiss him as nothing. Seto?' Anzu looked at him confusedly.  
  
'D-did you hear that?' Seto asked, eyes bulging slightly.  
  
'Hear what?'  
  
'I...' Seto shot Yuugi a strange look, ruffling his wings slightly. 'Did you...?'  
  
'You heard me?'  
  
'I think so, unless I'm just losing it...'  
  
'Seto, who're you talking to? Did. did he speak?'  
  
Seto, being Seto, ignored them. 'What is your name?'  
  
'Yuugi.'  
  
'His name is Yuugi,' Seto announced.  
  
'I thought I heard that, too.'  
  
'I didn't hear anything.'  
  
'This is ridiculous. Seto, are you making this up?'  
  
Seto turned and fixed Yami with a very annoyed glare. 'Why the hell would I make something like this up? I'm the one who doesn't believe he's sentient, remember, though now I'm not so sure.'  
  
'Oh, all right. It just seems fishy that the only person who can hear him is the person who doesn't want to hear him.'  
  
'It make sense though,' Ryou said, drumming slender fingers on one of the bars. 'Seto probably hates... er, Yuugi, isn't that so?'  
  
'What does that have to do with it?' Yuugi asked.  
  
'Yuugi wants to know what that has to do with anything.' Seto announced.  
  
'Oh. Well, communication is based on emotion, you know. Seto's emotion towards you is so strong that it has created a path for your words.'  
  
'Wow. You hate me that much, huh?' Yuugi muttered. Seto did not grace that comment with a response. 


	4. Malfunction

Major thanks to Lizzy-san, who beta-ed this fic. Argh, you guys won't believe how much she's helped me with this.  
  
Neko-chan: ...!! I can't believe you reviewed my fic! Oo;; Anyways, FF.net irritates me too. But not as much as LJ. I wrote that Anzu had brown hair? Well, that's what I tried to write... ^^;; But I kind of messed up. Just pretend that I haven't mentioned Mai before this.  
  
Chibizoo: Converted? Oo;;  
  
Liz: Err... Actually, Yuugi is the only human present where he is... ^^;;;;;  
  
~~  
  
Chapter 3: Malfunction  
  
~~  
  
"Hello? Hello?" Yuugi paused, frowned. "Honda? I'm trying to... I think we're starting to communicate... You won't believe it; they communicate almost completely by emotions and... are you still there?" He shifted slightly, starting to get agitated when there was still no answer.  
  
'Who was on the next shift? Bakura-san? Otogi-san?' Though he couldn't place faces with the two names, he had talked to both a few times on previous "missions". He'd met Otogi once, and could connect him with ebony hair and dice. Yuugi remembered dice earrings, actually, but his memory of such things wasn't the greatest. After his first meeting with Jou, he'd been left with only the vague impression of blue eyes. 'How quickly that had changed,' Yuugi thought wryly. As for Bakura, well, they'd never met. Perhaps he'd caught a glimpse of him in the hallways somewhere... Brows furrowed, he removed the mouthpiece from his collar and stared at it, shook it several times. It seemed intact. Further inspection of his earpiece yielded the same results. "Strange..."  
  
'Yuugi? The others want to ask you some questions now,' Seto announced, sounding a bit resentful at having to be the envoy.  
  
"Er, alright." Then, realizing that he'd spoken aloud, Yuugi repeated the words in his thoughts.  
  
Earlier, Yuugi had been happy to find that these not-quite-aliens also slept in beds and sat on chairs. He was soon given his own room, in which he was currently trying to make his communication devices function.  
  
With a sigh, Yuugi replaced the ear and mouth pieces, and followed Seto out, staring all the while at those gigantic black wings.  
  
~~  
  
"This is ridiculous, Jou," Honda announced for the fifth time that night. "Completely ridiculous." The other boy simply shrugged. He repeated, enunciating slowly. "Ri-di-cu-lous. Does that register in that thick head of yours? It's against company policy and I deem it a complete waste or resources to..."  
  
"Hey, c'mon! Yuugi might be hurt or something..."  
  
"Or maybe we're just blowing things way out of proportion. I mean, come on! Guns??"  
  
"We had to bring them. We wanna be prepared, don't we?"  
  
"For what? The massacre of an entire species?"  
  
"Er... no... We'll just break in, is all. Quietly."  
  
"Oh, I see," Honda nodded in mock-sagacity. "We'll just break in. Then we'll miraculously manage to find Yuugi. And get back out. Without a bunch of genetically advanced aliens at our tails. All quietly, of course."  
  
"Exactly." Seeing that Honda wasn't going to let that slide, Jou added, "or we could just let him die. I'm not planning on doing that. Are you?"  
  
~~  
  
Being on this planet for only a few decades as a species has its downsides.  
  
For example, the knowledge that sentries were supposed to be numerous and heavily-armed had yet to dawn upon the "aliens."  
  
~~  
  
The sentry with cat eyes was the first to spot the intruders. She nudged her partner in silent warning before slinking forwards. The other sentry, one with a rhinoceros horn on his forehead, soon followed, hands inching to an "on guard" position.  
  
She attacked first, all claws, teeth, and hissing, demonstrating her other catty attributes. With a startled yelp, Jou, who had been in the lead, ducked to the side, receiving only a scratch on his arm for his efforts. She turned, not even out of breath, blond hair swinging, violet eyes gleaming. Momentarily taken aback by how human she looked, Jou didn't register her leaping at him until she was right before him, breath hot on his face, teeth aiming for his throat.  
  
Honda caught her in the gut with his handy-dandy, multipurpose gun. The rhino-guy elbowed Honda just below his shoulder and began attacking with fists. Honda ducked, almost reflexively reaching for his gun, and only then noticed its absence.  
  
"Musta dropped it while using it as a bludgeon," he muttered to himself, leaping out of the way of another assault. Risking a quick glance around and a (most likely fatal) lapse in concentration, Honda still couldn't find it, eyes instead traveling to where Jou grappled with Catwoman.  
  
So, then it was back to incessant ducking and dodging, all defense and absolutely no way to do anything offensively. The rhino-guy seemed to be enjoying this, swinging his arms back and forth with a leer on his face.  
  
"Shit."  
  
~~  
  
"And this is why they're a threat," Jou mumbled to himself, mostly to keep himself focused. Blood trickled down his cheek, a reminder of the dangers of losing concentration.  
  
Honda was in trouble. Or, at least, he thought so.  
  
Jou swore. Now, if this had been Yuugi in question, Jou would've known instantly, without doubt. The two had that kind of bond. But Honda... Jou hadn't known Honda all that long, having only been introduced when Yuugi and Honda became coworkers. Perhaps Jou was wrong in thinking that Honda was in trouble, but better safe than sorry, right?  
  
Jou removed the gun from its position, nestled against his hip, and threw it backwards in an easy arc, all without looking, a skill he'd mastered with Yuugi. If it had been Yuugi, Jou knew that the gun would've gone directly towards his small friend, not that Yuugi liked guns. With Honda, all Jou could do was hope.  
  
Then, Catwoman was upon him once more, though all of Jou's reasoning and actions had taken place within the time span of a few seconds.  
  
Honda caught the gun with no little surprise, grateful for the assistance. Bang. The sentries cleared out quickly, fleeing from the thing that could shoot projectiles at high speeds. The teens stared after them, then collapsed down onto the grassy floor, left to bask for a while in their brief lull of victory.  
  
~~  
  
Don't tell them that you're supposed to study them, Yuugi reminded himself, careful not to let the others hear that thought. Instead, he used a story, prepared ahead of time by his superiors, Yuugi himself being about as guileless as these aliens seemed to be, about himself getting lost, which was true. Somewhat. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to cover up all the questions he was supposed to ask, but he did his best, and the others didn't seem to notice. Taking mental note of the answers he received, he also did his best to answer questions without mentioning technology of any sort.  
  
It was pretty hard, and even harder to see those trusting faces and know that, while he wasn't lying, he wasn't telling the whole truth either. It reminded him of refusing to give a hurt dog or cat enough food, only enough to tantalize them. In the long run, it actually did more harm than good.  
  
A man rushed in, barely pausing to nod respectfully towards the Winged Ones. Yuugi noted that he had no inhuman appendages-in fact, if Yuugi didn't know better, he would've thought the newcomer human.  
  
That thought scared Yuugi.  
  
The thought that some of these aliens were virtually indistinguishable from humans made him wrinkle his forehead a little. It was a bit scary, but, perhaps, it was also a good thing. Maybe the aliens and humans could mingle, become one race-the bacteria that had gradually evolved into this species had been from Earth, after all.  
  
Then again, humans had trouble accepting different ethnicities as one species. How on Earth (excusing the pun) would they accept people with feathers or tails?  
  
Yuugi's whimsical daydream was rudely interrupted by its source, the man who'd just rushed in. Breathing heavily, as if he had just run a great distance, he uttered, 'We're under attack!' 


	5. Even the Walls have Ears

Thanks so much to Lizzy once again! Not only did she beta, she also came up with the wall idea. ^_^ Couldn't have done it without her.  
  
Chapter 4: Even The Walls have Ears  
  
~~  
  
"Jou...?" Honda said slowly, blindly reaching towards his side to tap his friend on the shoulder. He couldn't tear his gaze away, even to look where he was tapping. Luckily, he avoided hitting any of the nastier gashes. "Ne, Jou, look..."  
  
Jou simply ignored him. He was fascinated with a strange, dusty purple rock. The edges were sharp, almost as if it had been torn out of something. 'I wonder what it's made of...' He turned it over and over in his hands while trying to figure out if he'd ever seen such a thing before. Annoyed, Honda tapped again, harder. "Jou! Look!" This time, he did hit one of the worse cuts. Jou breathed in sharply as a wave of pain swept over him. It was only then that he looked up, still running his fingers along the rock's rough edges.  
  
There were people coming. Or, to be more exact, there were some vague black people-like shapes showing up against the horizon, completely obscured by the sun's backlighting.  
  
Blinking owlishly to get a better look, Jou shook his head. "Can't see a thing, can you Honda? Sun's setting behind them."  
  
The sun dipped lower on the horizon, momentarily illuminating the building from which the people had come. The entire building was the exact same dusty purple color, Jou noticed, before something else caught his attention.  
  
Did the people coming have wings?  
  
~~  
  
Yuugi hurried along, partially behind Yami and partially behind Seto. As a result of this arrangement, Yuugi could not see. He figured that if he were taller, he could see over Yami's shoulder, or if he were faster, he would be ahead of the two. Instead, Yuugi simply shuffled along diagonally, trying to get to a place where he could see.  
  
Before he could, Yami turned around. He nudged Seto, who once more looked annoyed at having to translate. 'Yuugi, do you know these two?' Upon realizing that Yuugi couldn't see them, Yami moved over and pushed Yuugi forwards in one simultaneous motion.  
  
The "them" Yami was talking about turned out to be two very familiar figures staring at him with no little incredulity, which Yuugi reciprocated as soon as he got a glimpse of them. "Jou? Honda? Why aren't you back at the lab?"  
  
"Yuugi? You're okay?" Jou looked very embarrassed then, hands slipping to his pockets in an unconscious gesture as a slight blush crept across his cheeks.  
  
"We thought you were in trouble," Honda announced, raising his eyebrows. "You weren't..." he stopped, eyeing the aliens, who, undoubtedly, had wings.  
  
"It's okay, they can't understand us if we speak verbally." Yuugi looked cheerful, and very eager to talk. Honda favored him with a 'Pray-tell-us- lesser-mortals-how-else-we-could-possibly-speak?' look that Yuugi ignored. "They seem to communicate mentally, though not all of them can communicate with me. Not sure why. Something about emotion. Only that guy" (Yuugi pointed to Seto) "can understand me. They said that it was because he hates me so much. And I don't know why the stuff isn't working either. I looked at them, but they seemed fine."  
  
"Mentally? They communicate mentally?"  
  
'What are you saying? What do they want?'  
  
'Oh, they thought I was in trouble, so they came to rescue me.'  
  
'Why'd they think you were in trouble?' Seto asked, even as he passed on Yuugi's words to the rest of the group.  
  
'...Gut feeling,' Yuugi muttered, a bit uncomfortable with the lying. But he wasn't allowed to mention any sort of human inventions, in case he accidentally furthered the aliens' technology. Kind of a stupid rule, but what could he do about it? (Yes, this is barely short of plagiarism of Orson Scott Card's Speaker for the Dead.)  
  
'Well, they can't stay.' Seto announced finally, after an almost insultingly short discussion with the others.  
  
'W-why not?' Yuugi asked, confused. He looked up at Seto's cryptic expression, wondering what he had done wrong.  
  
'Gut feeling,' Seto replied angrily, with a hint of sarcasm and irony that Yuugi couldn't quite understand.  
  
'Pardon?'  
  
'If you won't tell us, we won't tell you.' His eyes narrowed. 'Oh, and you have to work harder at concealing your thoughts, researcher.'  
  
The color drained from Yuugi's face, but it was at this moment that his ears decided to pick up on Jou's voice. "Yuugi? Hello? Are you in there?"  
  
"Sorry, Jou. I was talking with them. They... know."  
  
"They know? What do they know?"  
  
"Everything that we weren't supposed to tell them."  
  
~~  
  
Yuugi's boss was Not Happy.  
  
He had gone to the lab to find Honda gone, completely abandoning the expensive machinery that would still occasionally emit Yuugi's voice. Something about a vague "they" and what "they" knew. Not bothering to stay and listen, as that was a job for an underling, Pegasus made a mental note to fire Honda if he ever happened upon the stupid, irresponsible nitwit again, and went to look for the kid on the next shift.  
  
~~  
  
Promising to tell Yami, Seto, Ryou, and Anzu the truth from now on raised their tolerance for humans from the negatives to the low positives. But they were still unwilling to let Jou and Honda stay, and Yuugi sadly bade the two farewell. Yuugi was uncomfortably aware of Seto's presence at his back, and mutely wondered if he was in danger. Telling lies wasn't exactly the best thing to do when somebody hated you.  
  
'We're not going to kill you,' Seto said, causing Yuugi to blush yet again. He had to figure out how to hide his thoughts better.  
  
'It's very understandable.' The other boy patted him on the shoulder. By now, Yuugi's face resembled the sunset. 'Your species is not accustomed to such a close and specific mind-to-mind communication. It will take time. You've actually made remarkable progress for such a primitive species. We've noticed that there are weak bonds like ours among certain members of your species. You have one with that blond haired boy, do you not?'  
  
Yuugi did not know how to answer.  
  
They led him back to the building. Yuugi's eyes darted around, looking at anything other than the Winged Ones, whose trust he'd betrayed. His eyes wandered to the walls. 'Purple. Strange.'  
  
'It's special material,' Seto announced. 'It helps amplify our thoughts. Before, we used your own indigenous materials, such as wood or stone. The thoughts were blocked by the walls, hindering communication between those inside and those outside the building. Now, the walls amplify the thoughts instead.'  
  
'Oh.' Yuugi leaned in to inspect the walls more closely, and surprisingly, Seto stopped to wait. The others continued inside with a few backward glances; they obviously had more important places to go. 'I thought you were mad at me.'  
  
Surprisingly, Seto laughed. 'I'm the only one who can communicate with you, remember? And I'm not mad at you, exactly. You make it sound so childish.' He turned serious again. 'It's nothing that simple, I can assure you.'  
  
'...Okay.' Yuugi shrugged slightly, and put out one hand to touch the walls. There were little white flecks buried deep in the purple, he noted. 'How'd you make this? How can it amplify thought?' He leaned in closer for inspection. 'How can anything amplify thoughts?'  
  
Seto folded his wings close to his sides, rather like a bird might. Leaning against the wall, he smirked. 'Why should I tell you?' He stayed like that for a few moments, then stood and unfurled his wings violently, causing several black feathers to fall to the ground. 'How do you make walls that amplify sound? We're very interested in that.'  
  
Yuugi jerked his head up sharply, before a sheepish smile spread across his face. 'Oh. Right. Shall we go inside now?'  
  
Wordlessly, Seto opened the door.  
  
Once inside, Yuugi sighed. 'Now what?' Realizing that Seto hadn't heard, he repeated the words again and again. And he'd thought that he'd mastered this mental communication thing.  
  
Miles away, Jounouchi looked up with a start. 


End file.
